Oak Harbor schools-Bomb threat being investigated

Authorities are still investigating bomb threats that occurred at the end of the classes Monday at two Oak Harbor schools.

No suspects have been found as of Wednesday, Oak Harbor Police Chief Steve Weirich said.

Officers are attempting to trace the source of the calls made to the Oak Harbor High School and Middle School shortly after 2:30 p.m. They believe the calls were made by a cell phone that can’t be tracked, the chief said.

http://www.presspublications.com/components/com_jce/editor/tiny_mce/plugins/article/img/readmore.png); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, serif;">“Fortunately it was at the end of the day when kids were getting ready to board buses,” the chief said.

High school classes had ended so students were put on buses and sent home.

Superintendent Guy Parmigian also cancelled all afternoon games and extracurricular activities.

Middle school students, however, were still in session and were evacuated to the nearby football field while law enforcement searched the building. They were later sent home also.

Around 6:30 p.m., the Benton-Carroll-Salem automatic phone system reported the “all clear” to concerned families throughout the district.

“All those agencies … that’s a whole slew of agencies and manpower,” Weirich said, shaking his head in disbelief about the hoax that consumed the afternoon. Many of the departments are manned by volunteers who had to leave work to undertake the search and protect the children, the chief said.

The scare happened the day after Easter Sunday – which students were originally scheduled to have off as a holiday. But district officials trimmed the holiday weekend to only three days after the district racked up a number of snow days because of the extremely harsh winter.

On the same day, at nearly the same time, someone also telephoned a threat into Sandusky High School.

“We spoke to them and they aren’t any further than us in the investigation,” the chief said.Last month, a lockdown occurred at Port Clinton schools when a threat against the high school was called in to the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department. Within days, city police arrested Alexander Fletcher, 22, of Port Clinton in connection with robbery and the hoax threat.

Port Clinton police say the threat was used to distract law enforcement so that Fletcher could rob the Mickey Mart Smoke Shop on East Perry Street. A man whose face was covered with a hood entered the building that day with a bat and left with nearly $600 in cash and two cartons of cigarettes. The crime happende about 30 minutes after the false threat.